Hupa Texts: Key to the Sounds Represented by the Characters Used
a as in father.
ā nearly of the same quality, but of longer duration. It is used as a matter of convenience to distinguish a few words from others nearly like them.
ai as in aisle.
e as in net.
ē as in they but lacking the vanish.
ei the sound of ē followed by a vanish.
i as in pin.
ī as in pique.
ō as in note.
o a more open sound than the last, nearly as in on.
oi as in boil.
ū as in rule.
û nearly as in but, a little nearer to a.
û
at faint sound like the last. Sometimes it is entirely wanting.
y as in yes.
w as in will.
w an unvoiced w which occurs frequently at the end of syllables. When it follows vowels other than ō or ū it is preceded by a glide and is accordingly written uw.
hw the preceding in the initial position. It has nearly the sound of wh in who.
l as in let.
L an unvoiced sound made with the tip of the tongue against the teeth, the breath being allowed to escape rather freely at one side of the tongue.
L nearly like the preceding, but the sides of the tongue are held more firmly against the back teeth, resulting in a harsher sound often beginning with a slight explosion. Some speakers place the tip of the tongue in the alveolar position.
m as in English.
n usually as in English, but sometimes very short.
ñ as ng in sing.
h as in English but somewhat stronger.
x has the sound of jota in Spanish.
s as in sit.
z the corresponding voiced continuant; only after d and rare.
c as sh in shall. It seldom occurs except after t.
d is spoken with the tongue on the teeth.
t an easily recognized, somewhat aspirated surd in the position of d.
t an unaspirated surd which is distinguished from d with difficulty.
k, ky a surd stop having the contact on the posterior third of the hard palate. Except before e, ē, i, and ī a glide is noticeable and has been written as y.
g, gy the sonant of the preceding, occurs rarely.
k when written before a back vowel (a, o, ō, û, ū) without a following y, stands for a surd nearly in the position of c in come, but the contact is very firm. The resulting sound is very harsh and quite unlike the English sound.
q is a velar surd occurring only before back vowels.
tc as ch in church.
dj the corresponding voiced sound equivalent to j or soft g in English.